Middlebury Voices

Last summer, Alexandra Spencer-Wong ’16 was part of a team of students that developed an inexpensive, easy-to-use device to enable farmers to test their cows regularly for a common and costly bacterial disease.

Middlebury’s STEM Innovation Program—the acronym stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—brings together students and faculty from a variety of disciplines to solve real-world problems. Funded by an anonymous donor to the College, the program takes place during winter term and for eight weeks the following summer. The student team selects a problem to solve and draws on STEM fields to produce a concrete, working solution, which might involve software, biotechnology, electronics, or a broad range of other fields.

“I feel a lot more confident in my ability to problem-solve, so that is something I would say is a big takeaway.”​